The day after Christmas is a good time to reflect on a conversation I
had that may have been repeated in many parts of America and the
world.
I found myself saying that George W. Bush may become one of the great presidents in American history, something that Bill Clinton seems to have been alluding to when he said he was jealous that Bush had 9/11 happen on his watch.
My conversational antagonists immediately hit me with "George Bush has
divided the country..." Yes, and that is one of the signs that he
will be remembered as a great president. One of the greatest
presidents divided the country into North and Confederate and then
divided the North into Union and Copperhead. The Copperheads were
Northern Democrats who hated Lincoln and did everything possible to
sabotage the war effort. A leading Copperhead newspaper was the New
York Tribune, just as is true today with the New York Times.
The Copperheads got stronger every day until General Sherman captured Atlanta and the North started to support the war.
The same thing happened to President Franklin Roosevelt. The country
was against him, the Cooperheads were called America Firsters, the
people who objected to war against Germany, especially since it was
Japan that attacked the U.S. (hear an echo of Afghanistan but not
Iraq?). The American public did not support the war in Europe until
the first major victories in France in 1944.
Being a devisive president is a sign of a strong clear policy with strong Copperhead opposition. The term Copperhead comes from the description of kosher in Leviticus, the snake is called the lowliest creature because it crawls on its belly. People in 1863 knew that a copperhead was a snake and they knew Leviticus.
I am reminded of Copperheads by several book reviews of Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North by Jennifer Weber.